Blood Hunt is the second PvE mode in Marvel Rivals, a co-op vampire siege built around four boss fights, a hero trait progression system, and a loot loop. It arrives as part of the Season 7.5 update and picks up the story thread left dangling at the end of Season 7, when Spider-Man's jailbreak at Kingpin's vault accidentally let Dracula walk out with a Norn Stone.
Quick answer: Blood Hunt launches on April 23, 2026, supports 1–4 players, and features six playable heroes fighting through four bosses including Dracula and Kingpin.
Release time: April 23, 2026
What Blood Hunt is
Blood Hunt is an event game mode that drops into Season 7.5, roughly a week after the season itself launches on April 17. Up to four players team up to cut through vampire hordes across New York City, working toward a confrontation with Dracula and then Kingpin. Each hero's kit is reworked for PvE combat, and you can stack duplicates of the same character in a squad.
The mode is solo-friendly but scales for groups of two, three, or four. Higher difficulty tiers push enemy counts and boss aggression up in exchange for better rewards.
Playable heroes
Six heroes are playable at launch. Magik, who appeared in the Zombie Mode roster, is not returning. Squirrel Girl and Moon Knight are the two new additions.
| Hero | Role | Returning from Zombie Mode |
|---|---|---|
| Blade | Duelist | Yes |
| The Punisher | Duelist | Yes |
| Squirrel Girl | Duelist | No |
| Moon Knight | Duelist | No |
| Thor | Vanguard | Yes |
| Jeff the Land Shark | Strategist | Yes |
Jeff is the only healer in the lineup, mirroring his role in the previous PvE mode. As with Marvel Zombies, abilities have been retuned so familiar inputs produce different results built around wave clearing and boss damage.
Bosses
Four bosses anchor the mode. Expect each to have distinct attack patterns, similar to how Namor and Scarlet Witch functioned in the Zombie Mode.
- Cap Wolf
- Ratatoskr
- Dracula
- Kingpin
Kingpin showing up as a boss fight is the narrative twist of the update. He was the one holding Dracula prisoner since Season 1, and a forced team-up with the heroes to clean up the mess is strongly implied before (or after) players have to physically convince him.
The story setup
The plot runs directly out of Season 7. Spider-Man and Black Cat break into Kingpin's vault to free captured heroes, not realizing Dracula had been locked away there since his Season 1 defeat. Dracula escapes in the chaos, pockets a Norn Stone from Kingpin's collection on the way out, and starts using its magic to unleash vampires on New York.
This is canon to the main Marvel Rivals timeline, not a standalone Halloween-style detour, which is a shift from how the Zombie Mode was framed.
Hero traits and loot
Two progression layers sit on top of the combat. Hero traits are passive bonuses tied to each character that unlock and scale as you clear stages on higher difficulties. The loot system rewards successful runs with artifacts, cosmetics, and Battle Pass progression, which is designed to make repeated clears worthwhile rather than one-and-done.
| System | What it does |
|---|---|
| Hero traits | Passive bonuses that upgrade as you beat stages on harder difficulties |
| Loot | Artifacts, cosmetics, and Battle Pass progress from completed runs |
| Difficulty tiers | Scale enemy count and boss behavior; top tiers pay out the most |
| Co-op | Solo play supported; squads of up to four, duplicate heroes allowed |
Blood Hunt compared to Zombie Mode
| Feature | Zombie Mode (2025) | Blood Hunt (2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Bosses | Namor, Scarlet Witch | Cap Wolf, Ratatoskr, Dracula, Kingpin |
| Hero progression | Basic PvE tweaks | Full trait system with scaling bonuses |
| Loot | Limited | Artifacts, cosmetics, Battle Pass |
| Story | Standalone seasonal event | Directly tied to Season 7 events |
| Player count | 1–4 | 1–4 |
How to jump in
Step 1: Update Marvel Rivals to the Season 7.5 patch. The base season update went live on April 17, 2026, and Blood Hunt rolls out as a separate event drop on April 23.
Step 2: Open the game mode menu and select Blood Hunt from the Event Game Modes list. Pick a difficulty tier that matches your squad size and comfort level; higher tiers raise rewards.
Step 3: Choose one of the six heroes. Squad composition is flexible, and duplicates are allowed, so four Blades is a legal answer if nobody wants to heal.
Step 4: Complete runs to unlock hero trait upgrades and accumulate artifacts and cosmetics. Trait bonuses persist across runs, so early clears make later difficulty tiers more manageable.
Is Blood Hunt permanent?
NetEase has not confirmed whether Blood Hunt stays in the game long term. The creative director has described it as the "next chapter" of Marvel Rivals PvE, which suggests a longer runway than a single event. The previous Zombie Mode was a limited-time event that got extended multiple times before being retired, so the safest plan is to play it during its scheduled window rather than waiting.
April 23 also kicks off the 2026 Hellfire Gala, and the first phase of the Path to Doomsday roadmap, an asymmetrical Loki-versus-Avengers mode tied to the original Avengers film, follows on April 30. You can track the game's official channels on the Marvel Rivals site for patch timing.